A Visit to MOMM

While in Carlsbad, Matt happened upon a flyer for the Museum of Making Music (MOMM).  We went and checked it out. It isn't all about guitars...

 but that was definitely what our family was the most interested in. The museum is set up by decade. Each room has instruments and an interactive history of the music from that time. 

 

 We had to set some time limits because everyone wanted to play the drums. 

 

The last room had a whole bunch of instruments for the kids to try out. 

 Noah playing Seven Nation Army on the bass. I guess he's always wanted to do that. 

There was also a room full of different kinds of saxophones, including the worlds biggest and smallest saxes. Thanks to "Sexy Sax Man" on YouTube, my kids are totally into the saxophone. 

We had a great experience at MOMM. But because I am a genius I let the kids buy kazoos for souvenirs.  Anyway, we stopped at the grocery store where Noah found some plastic tubes that accordion in and out and make noise. Which I let them buy too. Zack combined the kazoo with the tube and created what we called the "Zacksaphone." It was pretty awesome. And annoying. Mostly annoying. Strange how the components of the Zacksaphone have disappeared. 

Next stop: San Luis Obispo

The Harris Ranch is a happen' place to go for the 4th of July. We were really excited to see these little cuties again. This is Levi, who is very wiggly. The kids call him Mr. Squirms. 

 And poor Caleb is (affectionately) known as Mr. Chubbs. 

Charlie & Abbey set up a little store. It was a big success. 

Zack spent all his cash on this and bought all of the M&Ms. 

New for 2012: Chickens! Believe it or not, that is MY kid holding an animal. 

There are always interesting things to find.  Last year we had tick concerns. This year there were snakes! Exciting!

Leanne & Ryan's house is up the hill from the barn. There is a steady stream of walkers going back and forth. 

It's much nicer if you can catch a ride going up. Going down isn't so bad. 

Isn't it pretty? This is such a peaceful place. 

Matt & I having a Top Shot moment. 

I completed Hunter's Safety in 6th Grade. So I know what to do. 

I just do it really slow and with so/so accuracy. 

We actually came prepared to show off some talent this year. Ben sang "I'm Glad You Came" by the Wanted. I honestly didn't think he'd go through with it. He sang in this stance, not breaking a smile, for most of the song. But he did do a few jumps and busted out a moon walk. That's my boy!

Noah can solve a Rubix Cube in less than 2 minutes. I think he did this one in just over 1 minute. 

We spent at least three FHE's prior to the trip deciding on talents. Zack didn't want to do anything. I told him he didn't have to, but once we got there he was really upset about not having anything to perform. A little bit of drama later and he agreed to sing the beginning of "Good Feeling" by Flor-ida with Ben. Whew! 

All the performers. 

Also new for 2012: a tree house/great place for a picnic. 

What's the 4th of July without a flag cake. What for it.....

Fireworks:

Flags: 

 Another happy 4TH OF JULY!

Monterey

Monterey is on the way to San Luis Obispo, so we decided to make a quick stop.  This is Cannery Row. Named for being the location of old sardine factories and made famous by John Steinbeck. 

We aren't really aquarium people, but I hear this is a great one to visit. 

The boys really wanted to go to the Mirror Maze-in 3-D. They loved it. 

Another view of the bay. Monterey is a beautiful city. I wish we had more time to explore it. 

San Francisco

 After a pleasant night's stay in Manteca we were on the road again headed to San Francisco. The boys were more interested in the Maserati in front of us than the view crossing the Oakland Bridge. 

 It was too foggy to really be able to see the Golden Gate Bridge. It's there.

 We walked all the way across it. 

 Angel Island. Sometimes we could see it something we couldn't. 

 

 The whole way across Matt was trying to spot what he thought was a giant boat based on the sound of the boat's horn. Eventually, he realized that the horn was coming from the bridge. 

 Mid-way across and Ben was starting to lose it. He wasn't in the mood for a long walk across a bridge. 

 Ben officially lost it when he found out we were serious about walking all the way to the end and back. 

 But he made a quick recovery and had fun the rest of the way. It was a little cold and I wish it wasn't so foggy but it was a nice little walk anyway. Now the kids can say they walked across the Golden Gate Bridge. That's kinda cool. 

 Here we are at the Palace of Fine Arts. The kids didn't feel like going to the Exploritorium so we just explored the grounds. It's really pretty. 

 We drove over to the Coit Tower. The kids were amazed that Nana & I walked all the way there. It is a hearty walk, that's for sure. 

 I decided that one of my least favorite things to do on vacation is to find food. It's a huge pain when you have picky kids. We ended up eating at Mel's Diner one night. The kids liked the food so there is that. 

 We stayed at Le Meridian which is a nice hotel with some good views of the city. It's also really close to Chinatown. 

Poor Zack is the odd man out and gets to sleep on the floor. He does like making his little beds though.

 This parking spot cost almost as our hotel room. At least we didn't have to worry about it getting broken into. 

Our second day in San Francisco might go down as my favorite travel day ever. The kids were really good even though we walked around a lot. Noah took charge of planning our itinerary. A magazine in our hotel room recommended going to the fortune cookie factory. Of course we wanted to do that. A fortune cookie factory should be amazing. We put the address into the phone and started walking. The little blue dot turned us down a questionable and fishy smelling back alley. We walked down to the next street and realized somehow we'd gone to far. As we tried to figure out how we could have possibly missed a fortune cookie factory, a guy told us we'd passed right by it. So we re-traced our steps and found: 

Factory is a bit of an overstatement. Shop, maybe. Inside (if I took pictures I'd have to pay $1) there were two ancient Chinese ladies sitting at big metal wheels folding up fortune cookies by hand. We were told we could have an unrolled cookie and we bought a few regular style too. Noah didn't like his. Maybe it was the accompanying smell of dead fish or the weirdness of the "factory" but I was scared to eat mine too. 

 Turns out Noah LOVES Chinatown. He would have been happy to spend the entire day looking at the same merchandise in every single store. 

 We finally convinced Noah that there were other worthwhile things to see in San Francisco. We waited a long time, and got into a little scuffle with some people who don't understand the concept of waiting in a line, just to ride this trolley car. 

We ate lunch at Fisherman's Wharf. Matt & I chose Boudin Bakery

 and the boys picked McDonald's. Can you believe they have those in San Francisco? 

Alcatraz in the background. I waited too long to get tour tickets, so this is as close as we got. I guess we'll have to go back another time. 

 We weren't planning on it, but the Musee Mecanique ended up being one of our favorite places. It is filled with a bunch of antique arcade games. There were some interesting games. Ben figured out how to get free fortunes. 

Noah found relief for his aching feet: 

 You could potentially break your fist trying to hit that little ball into a cup. The shoe technique didn't work any better. 

 

Bike race! 

 This box was full of Bimbos! You know little stuffed monkeys playing the drums and cymbals. 

This movie is not amazing, not if you have ever watched a real movie. I had to turn the crank to make the black and white film slides move so that Zack could watch something that was "boring." And to think, that used to pass for entertainment. At least I assume it did. 

 This was the clearest view we ever had of the Golden Gate Bridge. I know. I could see it when I took the picture. 

Ghirardelli Square and a delicious treat. Zack didn't want any ice cream, only water and one square of chocolate. Worst decision ever. 

Windy, windy Lombard Street. 

 There is no good way to get a picture while in a car. 

 The goal for San Francisco was to have a good time. There are plenty of things we didn't get around to seeing. We'll save those for next time. We will definitely be back.